Known as the ‘Academy of Football’ West Ham have gained many admirers over the years because of the top quality players they have kept on producing, almost acting like a feeder club for bigger teams.
Its now got to the point where us (the fans) want to keep some of these players for ourselves…easier said than done!
In recent years we haven’t been able to replicate the talent we once produced; however with players like Jordan Spence, Elliot Lee, George Moncur and Danny Potts all being products of the youth academy, will they prove their worth?
Youth normally get their chance to shine in the Capital One Cup games but with the boards desire to add a trophy to the trophy cabinet, will youth be sacrificed?
Jordan Spence has been on the fringes for a good few years now, it seem inevitable that he will have the same fate as ex-teammates Zavon Hines, Junior Stanislas, Freddie Sears and Robert Hall.
We all hope that a youth member will make the breakthrough but that doesn’t seem likely at this current time, I would like to see Elliot Lee make his way into the first team within the next year or two, especially as we lack on any real fire power.
With the Olympic Stadium move not far away; the perfect chance for those younger players to prove their worth is now!
But is it likely?
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Although I agree that we should give youth a chance, I honestly feel that those days are long gone. With a manager who doesn’t seem to want to give youth a chance and the fact our Premier league position has gone through seasons of upheaval, we are not in a position both financially or in terms of squad depth to take the risk of playing a youngster.
It is a shame but the days of the academy producing talent we want to keep is slowly drifting away.
you’ve hit the nail on the head there. Its a huge shame. Although i’m 99% sure we’ll see a lot of Elliot Lee, the others will end up leaving without any opportunities with the first team.
Moncur and Spence haven’t cut it out on loan so no they don’t deserve to be kept. The key youngsters stepping up and needing games are Morrison, Lee, Potts Lletget and even Tomkins to some extent. Tomkins needs to form a partnership with Reid so he should start over the ageing Collins. Morrison should be allowed to play against the lower teams like Cardiff etc and start cup games because he was brilliant for Birmingham and also would mean Nolan can be fresh all season in the important games/come off the bench and score if we are behind. Potts, Lee and Lletget should be loaned to Champion ship sides to see how they fair and get first team experience.
Sorry to be such a pragmatist. I too would love to see more of our youth make the top grade with us. However, realistically it’s just not feasible. We bemoan our promising youth being sold off, but how many of them have gone on to major success. As long as we keep the Academy ethos we will keep providing English football with quality players. This is a good thing and occasionally we will produce the likes of Noble who we will keep and do the business for West Ham. But who apart from the ‘golden generation’, Cole, Carrick, et al, have we sold on who has gone on to make it big? I believe our investment in the young is the right thing to do, and we will, once in a while, strike gold. But we shouldn’t expect premiership quality as often as we do. The reason the Prem’ is made up of a 100 different countries is because clubs scour the world to find the very best players. As long as they do, we will be lucky when we find true Prem quality within our own ranks.
If they are good enough they will play, if not they wont, it really is that simple.
The author of this piece answered his own question with this sentence:
“Youth normally get their chance to shine in the Capital One Cup games but with the boards desire to add a trophy to the trophy cabinet, will youth be sacrificed?”
Effectively saying if we want to win games, don’t stick in players who can’t deliver.